Taliban in Control

By: Matthew Maffei, Jason Hammond, Megan Townsend and Ben Lee

Thesis: One of the United States greatest enemies, the Taliban, were grown from seeds which we ourselves planted and bloomed in conditions perfect for extremist ideals and religious ran oligarchy.

Taliban's Beginning:
The Taliban, which was a group formed from the Mujahideen, originated in the early 1990's. The Mujahideen were supported by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States to help remove the Soviets from Afghanistan.

-The Mujahideen was led by Ahmed Shah Massoud.
-Mohammed Omar had led the Taliban.
-The Taliban's promised to end political corruption and restore peace and security to Afghanistan.
-Afghanistan turned to the Taliban because they brought hope of ending the chaos that had been occurring in their country.

"In southern Afghanistan, there was a law and order crisis. There was rampant warlordism, and the Taliban came in as a cleansing force to establish law and order and wipe out the warlords and impose Islam, which they did. And they were quite popular doing it, initially. Their spread is really related to the support they got from Pakistan, which increased their military capability. And then they took Kabul in 1996."
-Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistan-based correspondent and author of books on the Taliban.


The Taliban Takeover:
The warm welcome of the Taliban quickly wore away when strict rules and regulations were placed on the people of Afghanistan. Once Taliban officials were given the right to use force to ensure rules were followed, Afghans found the Taliban just as unpredictable and harsh as the mujaheddin warlords that preceded them. Even with some sentiments, Taliban forces built their control through the Pashtun Belt and expanded north toward the other geo-ethnic areas of Afghanistan.


Methods of Control:

• Propaganda and religious preaching allowed Taliban soldiers to infiltrate local village militia, take over an area, and use the militia for other areas of resistance. These propaganda groups would consist of four to five individuals who traveled to small villages and explain Taliban teachings.
• The harsh, judgmental government of the Taliban played to the feelings of Afghans who thought the previous government was too corrupt.
• Taliban forces were aided monetarily by countries in the Arabian Gulf as well as Pakistan, and drugs, mainly opium, were sold for funding for Taliban task forces.
• Additional tactics included intimation, violence, and individualized targeting to create a docile Afghanistan under the Taliban.

The Northern Alliance, a group of provinces in northern Afghanistan rebelled against the Taliban rule, but, by the time of United States intervention, 80-90% of Afghanistan was Taliban controlled.

U.S and the Taliban:

CIA's Covert Operation:

• United States first became interested in Afghanistan in the 1980's
• Initiated over Russia encroachment in Afghan affairs
• Covert implementation to avoid war with Russia
• Ronald Reagan personally authorized the delivery of 1,000 surface to air missiles for shooting down Russian airplanes.
• One of the Saudis involved was Osama bin Laden who formed a training camp at Peshawar called Al Qaeda and trained guerrillas with the help of the CIA.

Russia's not interested, US Neither:

• The USA abandoned all assistance to Afghanistan as soon as the Russians left.
• The Taliban were eventually the successful faction among the extremists and the reforms of the 1970 were reversed.
• Given how the Soviets were treating the Afghans, and the opportunity it provided to damage the USSR, both from a PR viewpoint and in terms of actual monetary and military aspects, it was a good investment.

Video of current day Taliban training:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxI3wLgLpDs


Laws and Punishments of the Taliban:
The Taliban imposed its law, based on an interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic, law that was stricter than in any part of the Islamic world.

• Taliban completely bans:
  • T.V, internet, kite flying, keeping birds, books, public laughing, shouting, or clapping at outside events, photographs of women on T.V or in newspapers, and cannot hang pictures of women in one’s own home.
• Laws Men Must follow:
  • Grow their beards long, must cut their hair short, wear Islamic clothing, wear a Islamic turban or Islamic cap, look after and control their women (such as, beating and rape), pray at the mosque five times a day, should not engage in homosexual behavior, and provide for their women

• Laws Women Must Follow:
  • Cannot gain an education, walk outside without being accompanied by a male family member, have employment, wear makeup or perfume, laugh in public, wear shoes with clicking heels, have their picture taken, talk to males unless they are relatives, including in their own homes, ride bicycles or taxis, appear on the balcony or seen at the windows of their own home even with a full burqa on, wear a burqa in public and speak in a quiet tone

• Punishments if Any Rules are Broken:
  • Punishments were performed on the spot without a trial
  • If one steals, public amputation of the hand
  • If out of dress code (beard not long, women not wearing burqa, ect.) or adultery was committed, stoning to death would be perform
  • Any person found not praying at the designated times was sent to jail

Taliban Ideas Presented in The Kite Runner:

• On page 230, on the list of preparations Rahim Khan and Amir made included "the most important item: an artificial beard."
• On page 236, when Amir was in Farid's household, "[The woman] replied in a barely audible voice."
• On page 253, at the orphanage, Zaman, the director said "mothers can't feed [their children] because the Taliban don't allow [women] to work."

Three Major Points:

1. The Taliban were initially the Mujaheddin and accepted by both the United States and Afghanistan at first.
2. The United States helped to both train and arm the Taliban.
3. The Taliban maintain and hold the highest power and authority in Afghanistan, their word is law even if it is not written.

Sources:

http://asia.knoji.com/afghanistans-taliban-laws/
http://normlife.com/documents/original/the_talibans_interpretation_of_islam.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/asylum/european-asylum-support-office/bz3012564enc_complet_en.pdf
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1097442.html
http://www.cfr.org/afghanistan/taliban-afghanistan/p10551